


Free Time - or Lack Thereof

by aintweproudriff



Series: Race, Spot, Albert, and Elmer [10]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M, Multi, god literally everything I write is angst and fluff spralmer at this point, oh well its a good thing to write, uhhh spot is lonely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-29 23:09:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12095457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: Spot's boyfriends are always busy with work and school. And that's good, it is. Except for when he misses them.





	1. Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt I got!

“Race, hi!” Spot all but ran to the front room when he heard the door open and recognized the familiar footsteps of his boyfriend. “How are you?”

“I’m good. I had a really good day, and I got a lot done. Like, so much work done,” Race set his backpack down on the table and grabbed Spot’s face to press a quick kiss to his lips. “Stuff that I’ve been working on forever just kinda clicked today, and I was able to focus and put my mind to a lot of stuff.”

Spot grinned and grabbed one of Race’s hands. “That’s great! That’s so awesome, Tony.” 

“Yeah,” Race fidgeted with Spot’s fingers in his hand. “But it also means I’m totally wiped. My brain is just dead. I could probably fall asleep right here if I sat down,” he gestured to the floor. 

“Oh. Well uh,” Spot dropped Race’s hand gently. “I’ve got some food, if you’re hungry. I thought you might want to eat when you got home.”

“Are we gonna wait for Albert and Elmer?” Race looked over his shoulder before walking into the kitchen. 

Spot followed him in, taking slow steps. “Well, we can. But I don’t think Albert’s going to be home for a few hours, maybe. You know how he is if he gets sucked into something big: he’s just like you,” he placed a peck to Race’s cheek and sat down. “And Elmer’ll be home pretty soon, but he’s usually not hungry when he gets home ‘cause he eats at work. So there’s food for him, but I bet one of you two will end up taking it to work or school tomorrow for lunch instead.”

Race nodded lazily as Spot talked, and his eyes were glazed over to a point where Spot couldn’t tell if he was listening or not. 

“What did you get up to today while you were alone?” Race asked, his mouth half full of noodles. 

“Uh, well, I finished a lot of my work today. Got through a couple lessons, and did some work on my paper. Y’know, I almost think I work better when one or two or three of you is home with me. Gives me someone to talk out my problems with, and a way to take a break if I need one.”

Race’s face laid expressionless, and his eyes were starting to close. 

Spot cleared his throat loudly, “Okay, Racey. You’re tired. Should we get you to bed?”

Race nodded like that was the question he’d been waiting to hear. It probably had been. He reached for Spot’s hand and Spot took it, leading Race to their shared bedroom before kissing his forehead and leaving him alone to go to bed. 

Disappointed but not surprised, Spot walked back to the kitchen to clean up the dishes he had used for his and Race’s dinner, and his heart sank a little deeper with each dish he dried. 

He checked on Race once he was done cleaning up, and found him fast asleep, pantsless but still wearing the shirt he wore that day. 

-

Elmer was home soon after, walking in the door only to be shushed by Spot, who was on the couch watching a movie on his phone. 

“Race’s sleeping,” he whispered with a finger to his lips. “Poor guy’s exhausted.”

Elmer smiled and pretended to zip his lips. Spot smiled back and turned off his phone as Elmer sat down next to him, resting his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder. 

“How was your day?” Spot wrapped an arm around Elmer’s waist. 

“Spotty, why does work have to be hard?” Elmer’s eyes were closing already, but they fluttered ever so much as he tried to keep them open. 

Spot laughed, his hand touching Elmer’s gently. 

“Ugh,” Elmer’s head rolled off Spot’s shoulder, “and I’ve got more work to do.” 

Spot was almost a little happy that Elmer was off him by the time that he let out a deep sigh, because that way he couldn’t take notice of how disappointed Spot obviously felt. 

Elmer walked slowly to the office down the hallway, the one with four desks in the corners and a big table in the middle. 

“Elm, do you want some dinner?” Spot whisper called after his boyfriend. “There’s some more here.” 

“Nah, ‘m not hungry,” Elmer smiled lazily at him before disappearing into the office, presumably to finish up his work. 

“Alright. Great. I’ll just pack up your portion then,” Spot muttered to himself, and found himself cleaning up after what Elmer hadn’t eaten. 

Less than an hour later, when Spot had finished watching his movie, he discovered Elmer asleep in front of his glowing computer. He picked him up and carried him to the bed, gently placing him down next to Race. 

-

Spot never even saw Albert that night. He got home so late from school and left so early in the morning for work, that the only evidence Spot could find to prove that all three of his boyfriends had come home last night was the clothes on the floor.   
That, and a text message on his phone from Albert, reminding them all that he loved them “a whole lot,” and letting Spot know that he “liked the pasta, took some of it for lunch.”

-

Spot sat in the office at his desk that whole next day, trying as he might to get coursework done. But his eyes kept wandering away from his classes and his computer screen, and over towards the shared whiteboard on the wall. One section was filled with photographs of the four of them, almost everywhere they went.   
In the bottom corner, scrawled note read, “race + spot + al + elm,” contained by a heart. Spot remembered Elmer writing that on the day the four of them moved in. He remembered the time he tried to erase it from the board to write something else there, and the consequences of being bombarded with scrunched up paper. His boyfriends protested that the note stay up there at any costs, and honestly Spot wouldn’t disagree. 

He remembered when Elmer and Race had still been doing school work every day with him and Albert, and the way they would ask questions no one else could answer because no one else was studying what they were. Of course, he remembered every little argument that followed those questions.   
Spot found himself turning on their old playlist, the one they used to listen to when they would all be working at the same time. None of them had played it in months, and Spot liked listening to it, but it seemed wrong when the room was so empty. 

Glancing over all the old photographs, and looking back on how they used to act together, Spot’s eyes lingered on the calendar for too long. Every day was full, each square overflowed: all but one.   
He stood up, without truly knowing what he was doing, and examined the date a little closer. His fingers tapped the wall, as if the idea in his head needed a physical outlet.


	2. Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed this chapter, actually. Surprises can happen; even if you think you're going to fail at something, sometimes you do alright.

His fingers never stopped tapping, even when everything was set up. 

Reservations? Check. 

Date still free? Yep, thankfully. 

Race, Elmer, and Albert unaware of his plans for the night? Mostly, although they were certainly smarter than they looked. 

Spot anxiously waited for the time to arrive when he could tell his boyfriends of what was happening. The whole ordeal was nerve wracking, but he didn’t let on to his scheme, not even when Race and Albert had a very loud discussion on how happy they were that they finally all had a day off. 

“I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in weeks,” Race’s hand was in Albert’s, and his feet rested on the coffee table. Elmer tried to swat them off, but Race only laughed and crossed his ankles. 

“I know, right?” Albert swung his feet on the table too, sticking his tongue out at a giggling and blushing Elmer. “Like, we sleep in the same bed. But I haven’t talked to any of you, except for over text.” 

That was true; Albert had been a ship in the night recently. Little texts, notes, and whispers of “hi boys, goodnight, sleep well,” and “good morning I’m leaving now,” were all they had heard from him. 

“And I feel like even if I was home when you guys were,” Race added, reaching his arm out to ask Elmer to join them, “I wouldn’t usually be up to talking. I mean, Spot knows.” 

Spot looked up from his position at the kitchen table when he heard his name. 

Race continued. “I’m no fun when I get home. I’m too tired to talk to him, and I just wanna sleep.”

“That sounds ‘bout right!” Spot chimed in, cupping his hand over his mouth to make himself louder. 

The discussion would continue, and there was something to be said for Spot realizing that his boyfriends had missed him like he had missed them. Maybe they had been feeling the loss of time spent together, maybe they hadn’t.  
If they had been, he wondered, then how? Had they been just as homesick for the feeling of working together in the same office? For eating together, at one table with music playing in the background? For watching Race cook while they danced and poked fun at each other? For the flirting competitions in which they tried their hardest to make each other blush, and dared each other to follow through on all their teasing propositions?

-

“You guys,” Spot moved over to where his boyfriends sat on the couch and sat down on the coffee table so that he was facing them. Elmer frowned at Spot’s misstep, but listened when he said,“I really haven’t liked bein’ home alone so much.”

“I know, babe,” Race tilted his head. 

Albert put his hand on top of Spot’s. “We’re real sorry about that.”

“No, hold on. Lemme finish,” Spot smiled, looking Albert in the eye. “I miss not havin’ you here. I like hanging out with you three, that’s why I’m dating you.”

Elmer’s face broke into a grin, and Spot moved his hand to rest on Elmer’s knee. He made eye contact with Elmer, and then Race, and then Albert again before continuing. 

“And speaking of dating, I think that was one of the things I missed most. Because as much as I love living with you, I love datin’ you just as much. So I hope none of you mind that I scheduled a surprise date for tonight.”

Race clicked his tongue and grinned, Elmer laughed, and Albert squeezed Spot’s hand before dropping it to throw his hand in the air.  
The reactions seemed positive enough, and with a laugh he waved his hand. 

“So. Go get dressed, yeah? I’m not gonna tell you where we’re goin’, so don’t ask. And really don’t ask a question you don’t want me to say no to, because cancelling reservations just takes a phone call,” Spot laughed just enough so it was clear he was joking. 

“What should we wear?” Elmer stayed behind when the other two boys had run to the room to get dressed. His eyebrows raised and his eyes doubled in size, and for half a second Spot’s brain couldn’t think of a coherent answer. 

“Well, uh, I’d say somethin’ you look cute in. But you look cute in everything. So I’d say maybe nothing, but that’s not gonna work, at least not for the first part of the date.”

Elmer blushed and hit Spot’s shoulder as hard as he could. 

“Okay, okay,” Spot threw his hands up and laughed loudly. “You’ll need to wear a tie or a jacket, but probably not both. So somethin’ you can do that with. Got it?”

“Got it,” Elmer pressed a kissed to Spot’s cheek, the smallest and most intimate way to show his appreciation. 

Spot’s outfit was already laid out for him; he’d hid it in his desk chair in the office so they wouldn’t suspect anything. He pulled on a red checkered shirt and a blue patterned tie before walking out to the living room. 

His boyfriends followed one by one. Race’s gray dress jacket squared his shoulders, Albert’s bowtie stood out against his shirt, and made him look almost taller. Elmer, though, stole the show in almost every way by wearing a tie and a striped cardigan. 

Spot absolutely did not blush. Not at all. He wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of winning the game they’d been playing for years. He did, however, make a point of planting a kiss to three separate pairs of lips, not letting himself smile so much that he would get his teeth in the way of the kiss. 

-

He called a cab, making them wait at the front door of their apartment complex so that he could tell the driver where to go, and explain that they weren’t supposed to know. The driver, a middle aged man with wrinkles around his eyes, raised one eyebrow but smiled kindly and obliged, opening the door for the boys to climb in. 

“Are we going to-”

“Race,” Albert elbowed his boyfriend in the side. “He said he’s not going to tell us.”

“That’s right! You’ll have to wait to see your date,” Spot turned around to tease them, and ignored Race’s silent swears in his direction. 

-

“I knew it!” Race jumped out of the cab when they arrived, not even giving time for Spot to pay the driver before he stretched his legs. Elmer and Albert clamored out behind him, gripping their hands tightly together and laughing at Race. 

The table was no trouble to get; neither was ordering. This had been the restaurant where the four of them had gone on their first official date together, as the four of them. They’d been there many times since, and it had become a favorite. Obviously, they hadn’t been there in a long time, but seeing the fire burning in the old wood fireplace still felt like the first date. 

They sat in the familiar place, eating familiar food. They were a lot more familiar with each other than the first time, but no less eager to impress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Leave a comment or kudo if you did!


	3. Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen Spot has emotions and they are super soft especially when it comes to his boyfriends.

Spot’s heart could not have felt more full or more on fire. His boyfriends, sat next to him at a round table, smiled and chatted and ate their food like they hadn’t been able to in months. And, for the first time, none of them were talking about or even thinking about the stress of work or school. Instead, they laughed about all the funny things that had happened in the past few weeks that they hadn’t been able to share. Race had run into a pole on an early morning coffee run, Elmer had been calling a coworker the wrong name for months, Albert had seen a man on the subway reading a book with a crazy title, Spot had heard a hilarious joke. 

It was moments like this he missed the most; these were the moments that made him fall in love with these boys. Every second he heard one of them laugh, saw the way their eyes glinted at a punchline, or felt their hands on his reminded him of why he waited through the weeks of silence from them. 

-

The waitress, a young woman who must have been just out of high school, was refilling their water glasses when Elmer got a phone call. 

“Hello?” he picked it up, the tone of his voice slipping into anger for only a second. “Listen, now’s not really a good time,” he glanced around the table and mouthed an apology to his boyfriends. 

Spot, Albert, and Race nodded at him, unhappy at the interruption but understanding. 

“Can I call you bac- really? Oh. Oh my god.”

Race’s hand reached for Elmer’s, but Elmer moved his hand away. 

“Well, okay. There’s no way this can be dealt with tomorrow? You really think so? Alright,” Elmer ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. Yeah, I guess I’m on my way.”

Elmer hung up his phone, and tilted his head back to take a deep breath. 

“Is everything okay?” Albert asked, setting his fork down. Half a bite remained on the fork, one that was abandoned the second they sensed something was wrong. The other’s plates looked much the same. 

“Well, there was a break in at the restaurant,” Elmer leaned forward. “Someone took all the cash in the register, over five hundred bucks. They want all the staff there, to interview and see if we could maybe identify suspects.”   
His chest rolled as he inhaled and exhaled, trying not to show any anger. “And it absolutely cannot wait until tomorrow, for some reason. Police procedure or something.”

“Oh god, that sucks, Elm,” Spot said, wishing his face looked as stoic as Elmer’s did. 

“Yeah,” Elmer stood up and pushed his chair in, grabbing his cardigan in one smooth motion. He put it on and leaned towards the table. “I’m mostly just upset that I have to leave you guys. This was so much fun.”

“Yeah, I’m sad you have to leave too,” Albert said as Elmer stopped down to kiss him on the cheek. 

“Listen though,” Elmer paused to kiss Spot. “Don’t end the date because of me,” he kissed Race’s cheek. “If there’s more planned, or you guys want to go do somethin’, then do it. Don’t let me stop you.” 

“It won’t be as much fun without you though,” Race’s shoulders fell as he spoke. 

Elmer hummed. “Sorry guys. I’ve gotta run, I’m gonna call a taxi and get to the restaurant.”

“I’m goin’ to get the check, and we’ll follow you out so you don’t have to wait alone,” Spot said, looking at Elmer’s face but waving his hand to try and get a waiter’s attention. 

-

Once they had paid, the three boys followed each other out the front door. Elmer sat on a bench, his head in his hands and his shoulders heaving. His face had no trace of tears on it, but he must have been trying hard to keep it that way. 

Spot sat down next to him, while Race crouched down to put an arm around Elmer’s shoulders. Albert got on the phone with the taxi company, asking for a cab to their location. 

“I’m really sorry ‘bout the date. It was goin’ so well, and I was having so much fun. We haven’t had fun in a long time.”

“Sometimes things happen, babe,” Race squeezed Elmer, and Spot took Race’s hand. “It’s not your fault. Coulda happened to any one of us.”

“I know. I know,” Elmer looked up and around. “Honestly, what I feel the worst about is that I’m gettin’ all worried about how this could affect my paycheck. And I shouldn’t be worrying about money on a date.”

“That’s okay too, Elm. It’s okay to get worried about that kind of thing,” Spot leaned his head on Elmer’s shoulder, just in time for a taxi to pull up. 

“You take this one,” Albert said, pulling Elmer up and kissing him before helping him into the cab. “Go, do what you gotta do, and then text us when you’re on your way home, yeah?”

Elmer nodded and closed the door. 

His taxi drove off, and in seconds another taxi was at the curb. The three boys climbed in wordlessly; Race sat on the driver’s side backseat, Spot sat up front, and Albert sat in the middle. Just like they had on the way there. 

-

He had more planned for the date, but Spot asked the driver to take them home. Despite Elmer saying he didn’t care if they continued the date without him, Spot knew that had it been him in Elmer’s place, that would upset him even more than the break in. Albert and Race understood that too. 

-

At home, Albert and Race complemented Spot on his date, saying what a “great idea it was,” and “how they didn’t do that enough.”

Spot smiled in a melancholy way, kissing each boy as they told him they loved him, but didn’t say much before he crawled in bed. 

-

Spot didn’t sleep, and Race and Albert didn’t come to bed for nearly an hour; they stayed up in the living room and talked for a time. Spot heard snippets of their conversation from his place in their bed. 

“Sucked that Elmer left.”

“I was really lookin’ forward to whatever else there was.”

“I wish we weren’t all always so busy.”

“Think Spot’s really that upset ‘bout it?”

“I think so.”

Spot did wake up from a state of half-consciousness when Albert climbed in bed next to him. 

“Hey. I’m too tired to stay up, but Elmer just texted us. He’ll be home in half an hour. Race is stayin’ up.”

The boys heard and felt Elmer and Race crawl into bed later, but neither of them opened their eyes to see them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Leave a comment if you did, it helps ensure that the other chapters are good!


	4. Relationship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I really love this chapter. It made me squeal, and I feel like maybe that's a little selfish because I also don't love my writing but... if I like something I like it. That makes no sense but I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

The next days passed like nothing happened; as if there never was a date or a phone call. Spot would have been kidding himself if he pretended he wasn’t expecting that. He knew that, even if the date had gone perfectly, they couldn’t automatically change their schedules to fit each other. He’d still be home alone most of the day, and his boyfriends would still be too busy for him.   
But he had been banking on the idea that the date would give him a memory to smile on, one that he could think about when he missed his boys, and one that would promise him that something would happen again.   
He chided himself, knowing that it had gone the way it had to, and that not everything could go the way he wanted it to, and that there would be another time he could hang out with his boyfriends again. 

Spot sat at his desk for three days, only taking breaks to eat, sleep, and say hi to Race, Albert, and Elmer when they came home. His brain buzzed with every new fact he slammed into it, his mouth repeated the same words over and over so that he could memorize what he needed to know.   
He tried his hardest to only think about what he needed to know, not what he needed to feel. 

And he never thought about what he heard, late at night, when the other three boys spent time together and he wasn’t there.   
They talked about him all the time. They were all worried about him, craving to know that he was okay, but recognizing that he wasn’t. There were so many ideas that they tossed around: either he was working too much, or eating too little, or worse - angry at them. 

-

Spot was at his desk, typing furiously on his keyboard, hoping that one of the bullshit statements he made would make enough sense to keep it in his paper. Without warning, two pairs of hands that were not his own found their way to his shoulders. 

“Spotty,” Elmer squeezed his right shoulder. “We all got home a little earlier than normal, do you wanna go grab some food?”

Spot swallowed, glanced up, and glared back at his computer screen. “No, thanks.”

“I really think you should, Spot,” Albert knelt down and took one of Spot’s hands off his keys. “You work yourself too hard, and we haven’t really spoken to you in days.”

Race’s hand was on Spot’s back. “Please come, Spot. It’ll be fun, okay?”

Albert swung Spot’s swivel chair so he faced all three boys, and so that he could see how surrounded he was. This was not a request, it was an order, and this was an ambush. 

“Fine. I guess it could be good,” he said, deliberately not smiling. He rolled his eyes at the way his boyfriends pumped their fists and cheered, a little too excited. 

-

Getting out would be good for him, though, as he would discover when he found himself in the park, blocks away from their apartment building. On the way there, hands had been traded around, and his had been passed from Albert to Elmer to Race and back again. Arms went slung over shoulders, each of them accompanied by two hands.   
Fresh air seemed to be all Spot could find to breathe, even when he was smushed between Albert and Race and encircled by cars and smoke. He noticed things he hadn’t seen properly in weeks, even months; like the way Elmer’s eyes sparkled in the sun, or the way Race’s dimple showed itself every time he looked in Spot’s direction, or how Albert’s freckles danced a little more when he blushed. 

Albert got the hot dogs from a stand on the corner, one for each of them, and they sat on a park bench together while they ate. 

“No, no, really. I honestly thought this police lady was just bein’ nice to me, helpin’ me deal with all this stuff,” Elmer’s cheek was stuffed full of hot dog bun, which only made his story funnier to his boys. “But she gets done interviewin’ me and I’m like, super flustered and annoyed. But I’m tryin’ not to show it, because I have to be professional and all. I smile at her, and ask if I can leave and she looks me up and down like this,” he did a once over of Albert with his eyes, raising his eyebrows and trying to look seductive despite the ketchup on his mouth. “And she says, ‘not before I get your number.’ Can you believe it?”

The whole group of boys went into an uproar as Elmer kept talking. 

“I don’t know how she didn’t notice the rainbows on my shoes. I literally walk around and my feet always say, ‘I’m gay!’”

“What’d you tell her?”

“Ah, I felt so bad for her. It was late, and Emma had been crying over the break in, so I let her down nicely. I just said, ‘no thanks, I’m gay.’”

Race wheezed. “Can I just say, ‘no thanks, I’m gay,’ to everything that happens? Please?”

Spot laughed again, and grabbed Albert’s trash from his hand to throw it away. Race and Elmer couldn’t keep eating until they stopped laughing, they had already choked on their food more than once. Eventually, they finished their food too, and the four boys intertwined their hands again before carrying on their way. 

-

Race insisted on making them stop for ice cream as the sun set, and they sat outside again to eat it. 

“Listen, you guys,” Spot moved his arm away from his mouth as he spoke. “I’m sorry for how I’ve been actin’. I know I kinda shut myself away, and that was an asshole thing for me to do. I didn’t really know how to deal with missin’ you before, and I really didn’t know how to deal with missin’ you when you’re right there. I’m real sorry.”

“It was our faults first, Sean,” Race’s eyes closed, and his hand brushed Spot’s arm. “We were gone all the time, and didn’t really stop to think about how that might affect you.”

“And then we weren’t willing to talk to you after we got home, or make time for you at the end of the day, because we were so tired or got home so late,” Elmer moved towards Spot much in the way Race had, and Albert copied. 

Albert spoke up last, taking a big breath as he did so. “Which is why we all decided we’re goin’ to make each other a priority. I’m gonna get home a few hours earlier, so I can see you guys, and so is Race, and Elmer’s not gonna eat at work so that we can all eat together at the end of the day.”

“That’s right,” Elmer grinned. “I know it might not be much, and it might not be enoug-”

“Are you kiddin’?” Spot laughed. “That’d- that’d be so good. Can you really make enough time to do that?”

“Well, yeah,” Race licked his ice cream again. “And, if we need to, we can always bring work home with us and then we can work together again. Well, Albo and I can. I dunno how much Elmer can bring home.”

“I won’t need to. Point is, Spotty, we don’t want you to be alone so much. And we miss you and each other just like you do when we’re gone. We have to be spending more time together.”

Spot leaned over and kissed Elmer, interrupting his words and creating a mix of strawberry ice cream from Elmer’s mouth and chocolate from Spot’s. They broke apart in what was almost giggles, and Race and Albert swooped in to mix their flavors with those of their boyfriends. 

-

They walked home that night, physically and emotionally closer than they had been before, and ready to do whatever it might take to ensure that stayed the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked it, please let me know with a comment or kudo! I'm always taking prompts over on tumblr @javidblue or I'm always up to talk about newsies @spot-and-all-his-cronies

**Author's Note:**

> Here have that playlist I talked about: https://open.spotify.com/user/nerdybek/playlist/5FV6JiyQMQtHqh8QC8NJf9
> 
> I hope you liked this fic! Let me know if you did, and feel free to always send me prompts @javidblue or just come yell at me @spot-and-all-his-cronies on tumblr!


End file.
